sandy_sorlien

Hi Mike and all,

Well, I did egg everyone on with my "Fellow Democrats" salutation.

The reason I posted this on LF is because youse are smarter than other photographers

(ha), and I have been reading the LF forum for years and know who speaks the truth...

(For the red staters, "youse" is Philadelphian for the second person plural.)

Thanks again!

Sandy

Yes, Robert, those would be important pictures. But thanks for the warning. I'm gonna

print out this whole thread to show the students. Keep the posts coming. We can also use

ideas on what other stuff to shoot that day.

Sandy

Hello Fellow Democrats (or whatever)

I am sending my students out shooting on Election Day. Has anyone tried photographing

at polling places? I found a statute that says you can't do it within 100 feet "with intent to

intimidate," but I wonder whether you can get closer with other intent, e.g. "artistic" intent.

If not voters, what about the machines, or buildings, or general scene?

Need answers/opinions/anecdotes ASAP

Thanks

Sandy

I love Nebraska. Yes, the Sandhills, amazing. No one there. The ranchers let me go on their land when I asked them -- it's all private cattle land pretty much. Find the little ponds near Alliance; the light shimmers off them; lots of cool wading birds too. Rte 2 through the Sandhills is one of the very best driving roads in the country. Wheee!

Check out Carhenge near Alliance while you're up there.

Broken Bow has an interesting old town square.

Toadstool State Park is weird.

As I recall they were a little lower in Hilo, which makes sense because there's more competition there. That's the only big town. It was about 2.20 a gallon and up, last month. But you won't be driving that much. There are only, like, two roads. Get out and hike!

I hope you will report on your trip when you get back. Maybe I'll have something written for my website by then.

With both a Fuji 69 and an Arca 69 I want for NOTHING. Pure street-shooting happiness. Plus, the Fuji is so ugly, no one will ever steal it. It's like one of those giant telephones in "Police Squad." Makes your head look tiny.

Sandy the Pinhead

Great thread.

It's not about selling, it's about communicating. We are collectors, showoffs. We go out and collect (photograph) the stuff we want to preserve, or we go out and see something we want to show someone. Either way we are trying to share it with others. However you do it, with Azo, with ULF, with a Diana, or anything in between, if you are not communicating YOUR VISION to the people you want to understand it, then your technique needs work. If you are communicating it, then forget about micro-managing every little thing and trying different developers and papers. Just go out and "collect" some more stuff. You will know when something isn't working, like if you can't get blacks as rich as you'd like, or if you keep saying, Gee I wish I had a longer lens for these shots.

I believe in content first, then you'll figure out a way to get it across.

Cheers,

Sandy

Sorry Edward, but you couched the question in a trollish manner.

Sally Mann sells 8x10 contact prints and 30x40 prints of the same image, nothing wrong with that, but her 8x10s are several thousand dollars, as well they should be!

Silver prints for $40 are mass-production and/or gross underselling that should be condemned, IMHO. Did you notice what the edition size was for the smaller prints?

Edition size would have an efect on the value of each print, an artifical value some would say, but neverthless scarcity is something people would pay for. If the edition is 250 or 500 you can well imagine what kind of loving care went into the printing of each of those.

Tribby, I love the Fuji but I am blowing through a lot of film. That's OK, I am definitely getting some good shots I would not have gotten with the Arca. I only handhold the Fuji so I've decided to use 400 NC film from now on to get an extra stop over the 160 NC. My best pictures from Hawai'i are closeups of small rocks on black sand beaches -- talk about your Zone III --- I would not have subjected the Arca & tripod to the salt water and sand, and I would not have been able to stop motion on the waves with the 160 speed film.

Cheers,

Sandy

This is a trick question, isn't it Edward the Troll? Unless that was a typo and you meant to put $400 not $40. Forty bucks for an 8x10 contact print? Does that even cover your film, paper, and shrink-wrap?

Here's an alternative: take the million dollars you have to set up a gallery in Sausalito and put it into high-quality publishing instead. Start a nice foundation and give grants to photographers trying to publish.

That's the best way to make fine work accessible to the non-wealthy.

Brian is quite right about the blue guidebook, fantastic. We didn't buy it till halfway around the island in Hilo, and we were kicking ourselves that we didn't have it on the Kona side too. The Rough Guide of the Big Island is also excellent - and very small. Anyway, do save your lens money for food -- restaurants and grocery stores are very expensive. We did not camp, we splurged on B&Bs and small hotels. If you're tired of getting rained on on the Hilo side, stay at Dolphin Bay and get a kitchen. (about $85) Do not avoid the rainy side -- the light is transcendent!!! And the foliage bodacious. Just use a lens hood to keep the mist off the lens. We did not have 4WD so you will get up Mauna Kea which we did not do. Here are our highlights:

Snorkeling: buy equipment at Snorkel Bob's in Kona, go in off Two-Step down at Cities of Refuge. Also Kapoho Tidepools in Puna area. Also left side of Hapuna Beach (BEST swimming beach).

Drive: along Puna coast to lava flow, stop at black sand beach.

Hike: in Volcanoes Nat'l Park, do Kilauea Iki and Byron Ledge to center of Caldera (trail name beginning with H) and over to Crater Rim trail - 8 mile loop. Incredible landscape changes.

Lava: Go before dusk to lava flow, ask rangers where. Flashlight essential.

In Volcano - the Thai restaurant is great and Kilauea Lodge even better.

Hilo: splurge on this restaurant, or at least have a drink: Kakaido, it's new. Used to be a bank, they keep wine in the vault.

See Pacific Tsunami Museum.

Visit Hawaii Botanical Gardens - beyond gorgeous.

Wed & Sat -- Hilo Farmer's Market, great stuff

Hike: Waipi'o Valley -- 4WD can drive down but we were studdly and walked - steepest paved road on earth. Cross the stream, hike up other side for best view.

I will try to attach 2 pictures in a few minutes.

Matthew,

I just got back from two weeks on the Big Island! Awesome. I don't know why people waste their time on those more built-up islands. (Well, I do -- Haleakala and Kalalau Valley are also awesome.)

I just took my 6x9 rangefinder with a 65mm. It was wide enough for lava fields and Kamehameha Avenue in Hilo and rainforests. I wouldn't buy a 55 (for 4x5) just for that. I never wished I had my 47, though I did wish I had my Arca once or twice.

Sandy

PS feel free to ask questions about where to go if you haven't been....

Zeichner is right. Never use Spotone without a white Kleenex in hand, use it as a blotter, and blot the brush till the tone on the Kleenex is LIGHTER than the tone of the area you are working on, and nearly dry. I think a #0 is too big, I prefer #000 or #00000 sable watercolor brushes. I never use hardening fixer for anything.

I spotted my own prints for 20 years and they look very good -- of course it helps that I used that grainy infrared film!

The spotting pens are great, but not as precise. They are good for light washes of big areas.

Cheers,

Sandy

Hi Geoffrey,

Moldy fig? Uh-oh. I'm gonna have to spend a lot of time on this answer. Actually if you want to pursue it off-list I'd be happy to send you some copies of all the long posts from the TradArch forum I'm on. We've been going over these issues there for a couple of weeks and I'm plumb worn out. Well, I do agree with your characterization of some Modernist houses as being regionally sensitive - particularly in the desert, I find, where a certain sterility and coolness seems appropriate, but unfortunately most of them are not. You wouldn't have a clue whether they're in the Florida Panhandle or The U.P. of Michigan by looking at them, aside from the foliage.

Your other point about the sorry state of the built environment is correct about the autombile culture, but I believe incorrect about Modernism. Modernism made it OK to build bland ugly boxes with alienating facades and that is what we have. Modernism is also a culture of the machine, including the automobile.

True Classicism is not only about ornament. It is about proportion and scale, relating to the human being in a most fundamental way.

I do agree that bad design is bad whether it is Modernist or Traditional, and that some of Richard Neutra's houses in CA are pretty cool to see in Shulman's photographs. But IMHO some photographers prefer to photograph glass cantilevered houses with acute angles because they can show off their razzle-dazzle technique. Photography of traditional buildings is a quieter enterprise.

Cheers,

Sandy

What, no sexual innuendo responses to that thread title? Guys, you disappoint me.

Sandy

I know there has been a thread like this before, but this is so good

we have to start a new one. I wish I'd had Elliott Erwitt along for

this scene. Yesterday I was jogging on a public path along Kelly

Drive and the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, where runners,

cyclists, rowers, bladers, walkers, and drivers zoomed by in both

directions.

Suddenly a bright white baby butt caught my eye. Yes, a completely

naked baby was standing on a bench, his/her butt facing out for all to

see. His mom was dealing with his diaper situation. She seemed to be

fumbling around with the dirty diaper, putting it away or something,

as she held him upright on the bench. At the same time, about 15 feet

from them alongside the jogging/cycling path, was a Hasidic Jew in

long dark coat, beard and dark hat, staring at them. He had a boxer

dog on a leash and his dog was in the process of taking a dump on the

ground. The man held aloft a plastic poop bag.

A minute later I started talking to the guy and babbled, "Omigod that

was the funniest thing I ever saw, it looked like you were about to

offer her your dog poop bag" but he just smiled and nodded until I

realized he didn't speak a word of English. Except, he said in a heavy

accent, "Have a nice day."

Cheers,

Sandy

PS Tim ---

"Nostalgia" is an honorable notion which has gotten in with a bad crowd (Thomas Kincaid, etc.). "Nostalgia" is from the Greek and means almost literally "homesickness" - a desire to return to one's home place. A powerful longing, and an important one for place-makers to acknowledge.

Sandy

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your answers and questions. Tim, I love that "Chuckyville" -- I'll have to tell my English architecture friends that one. YES you are on the right track -- I am a card-carrying New Urbanist and in fact this presentation is for the CNU Congress in Washington. Anyone who cares about the built environment should check out their site cnu.org. I have shot Seaside and Kentlands myself so I'll include a few of those. Steven Brooke did a beautiful book on Seaside shot with an Arca 6x9; unfortunately I gave it away as a gift so I'll have to order another.

Most (not all) of Shulman's best work is pure modernism - those LA houses are modernist NOT classcial or traditional. Modernism is anti-tradition. "Traditional" would include old, new, vernacular, classical -- but they would all have connections to original building traditions of the region in which they are found.

I have a beautiful book of the work of architect Thomas Gordon Smith - various photographers. He is a contemporary Classicist.

Walter, thanks for reminding me about Laughlin -- he's a great example of romantic style which flatters traditional old places. And jnorman thanks for reminding me about your book which I meant to order long ago. Will do so now!

Keep the ideas coming.

Cheers,

Sandy

Ikka has beaten me to my point but I'll expand on it. I photograph with a monorail on a tripod on city streets. I am shooting pictures of architecture and I do not want any people in them. (I think we architectural/landscape photographers should ask everyone who does portraiture, "Hey, why aren't there any buildings/mountains in that picture?") ABSOLUTELY there is a decisive moment. In my color pictures I must decide what color I want the traffic light to be, and wait for the exact moment when it turns that color AND there are no cars or people in the frame AND the wind settles down a bit so the trees aren't too blurry AND no birds are flying through the scene, destined to be unsightly blobs at 1/15 second. Let's not even start on "when the light is right." Anyone who says architectural photography is easy because the subject doesn't move has never gone out and done it, waiting for that decisive moment.

Cheers,

Sandy

Hello everyone,

I am preparing a slide lecture about the photography of Traditional

Houses, Streets, and Towns, which I will present June 20 to an

audience of architects and urban planners. As this is my own subject,

I will include some slides of my work. But I want others, both

contemporary and historical. I have some books I can shoot from of

Atget, David Plowden, Jerome Liebling, Steven Brooke, Wright Morris,

etc. but I'm not in the loop of professional architectural

photographers who shoot for clients and have shot a lot of Traditional

and Classical subjects (in addition to the ubiquitous Modernism). For

example, the work of Steve Rosenthal in the March/April View Camera

could be useful. I am especially interested in shots of contemporary

Classical houses and other buildings, as they are hard to find.

I'm sure some of you on this list have done this kind of work, or

would have some names for me. I'd prefer published work so I can shoot

from books, but if someone wants to send me some dupe slides I'll

consider them.

(Anyone have Maxwell MacKenzie's phone number or email? I lost it....)

Thanks,

Sandy

John's advice is right on. Don't forget your medium is light. My preference with B&W and color has always been to photograph in light that treats my subject well. That way there are only minor adjustments to be made in contrast later (with B&W) or none at all (with color neg). A few times I've pre-exposed the frame (while shooting) with a neutral card (Flashing) to reduce contrast with color neg, but that just got to be an annoyance so I just made sure to get up earlier in the day, or be more vigilant, for softer light. Watching, waiting, and evaluating your light is the most important control.

That way you are really seeing your subject as a whole, not always picking its zones apart.

Just one way of working....

Cheers,

Sandy

Probably helps to be female, but I've been shooting bridges in the heartland with a small digital and a hand-held 6x9 and a view camera on a tripod. No one has asked me wassup.

In October 2001 (one month after 9/11) I was shooting a streetscape in Pottsville, PA and set up the tripod across from a US Armory. A very polite man came out of the Armory and wondered if I was photographing it. I showed him on the ground glass that the Armory did not show except at the very edge, said I was doing a book on Main Streets, and he was fine with it.

Be humble if someone asks you about it and you should be OK, but I keep pointing my gunlike Pentax spotmeter at people's places of business all over the country (including New England) and no one has yet called the cops on me.

Cheers,

Sandy

I don't do interiors, but for streetscapes, two of my favorite tools to acompany my Fuji 65mm rangefinder (NO movements) are a 26" stepladder and two orange traffic cones.

I also have an Arca. Start saving up, it's worth it!

Cheers,

Sandy